NEW  STATE  CAPITOL  OF  MINNESOTA. 


PROCEEDINGS 


AT  THE 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone 


OF  THE 


NEW  CAPITOL  OF  MINNESOTA 


ON  THE 


27th  Day  of  July,  1898 


AT  THE 


CITY  OF  ST.  PAUL 


ST.  PAUL,  MINN.: 

The  Pioneer  Press  Company. 
1898. 


BOARD  OF  STATE  CAPITOL  COMMISSIONERS. 

GOV.  D.  M.  CLOUGH . President  (ex-officio). 

CHANNING  SEABURY,  Vice  President . St.  Paul. 

E.  E.  CORLISS, . Fergus  Falls. 

JOHN  DE  LAITTRE,  . Minneapolis. 

GEORGE  A.  DU  TOIT, . Ohaska. 

C.  H.  GRAVES, . Duluth. 

H.  W.  LAMBERTON,  . Winona. 

EDGAR  WEAVER,  . Mankato. 

FRANK  E.  HANSON,  Secretary. 


CASS  GILBERT,  Architect. 


SUPERINTENDENTS. 

JOllN  BOLAND,  . For  the  State. 

C.  F.  F.  ABBOTT, . For  the  Architect. 

CONTRACTORS. 


THE  BUTLER-RYAN  CO, 


.  .  St.  Paul. 


COMMITTEES, 


The  following  committees  were  in  charge  of  the  various 
details  attending  the  event,  viz.: 


EXECUTIVE  (ON  BEHALF  OF  STATE). 

GOV.  D.  M.  CLOUGH,  Chairman. 

Chables  H.  Graves,  Chaining  Seabury. 


EXECUTIVE  (ON  BEHALF  OF  CITY). 

GEO.  R.  FINCH,  Chairman. 

Richards  Gordon,  R.  A.  Kirk, 

A.  H.  Lindeke,  C.  A.  Severance. 


PROCESSION. 

J.  J 

J.  W.  Bishop, 

H.  N.  Cook, 

A.  R.  Kiefer, 

W.  W.  Price,  Jr., 

Albert  Scheffer, 

TRANSPORTATION  (TO  SECURE  SPECIAL  RATES  FOR  GUESTS). 

E.  A.  YOUNG,  Chairman. 

J.  H.  Beek,  J.  T.  Clark, 

J.  T.  Conley,  J.  M.  Hannaford, 

A.  B.  Plough,  F.  I.  Whitney. 

NEWSPAPERS  AND  PUBLICATIONS. 

CONDE  HAMLIN,  Chairman. 


.  McCARDY,  Chairman. 

E.  S.  Chittenden, 
M.  N.  Goss, 

E.  H.  Milham, 

J.  C.  Shandrew, 
C.  R.  Smith. 


H.  P.  Hall, 


C.  C.  Whitney. 


INVITATIONS  AND  RECEPTION. 


CHAS.  E.  FLANDRXU.  Chairman. 


M.  Auerbach, 
H.  R.  Brill, 

H.  W.  Childs. 
Thos.  Cochran, 
Michael  Doran, 
J.  F.  Fulton, 
James  J.  Hill, 

P.  H.  Kelly, 

W.  R.  Merriam, 

D.  R.  Noyes, 

E.  W.  Peet, 

H.  F.  Stevens, 
H.  P.  Upham, 

J.  A.  Wheelock, 


C.  H.  Bigelow, 

C.  W.  Bunn, 
Greenleaf  Clark, 
W.  B.  Dean, 

R.  C.  Dunn, 

C.  W.  Hackett, 

A.  R.  Kiefer, 

D.  A.  Monfort, 

C.  D.  O’Brien, 

A.  T.  Koerner, 

W.  H.  Sanborn, 

C.  A.  Wheaton, 

A.  B.  Stickney, 

R.  R.  Nelson. 


DECORATIONS  AND  ATTRACTIONS. 


H.  C.  McNAIR,  Chairman. 


T.  L.  Blood, 

A.  B.  Driscoll, 

E.  L.  Hersey, 

L.  P.  Ordway, 

W.  C.  Read, 
Chas.  Straus, 

J.  H.  Skinner, 

W.  H.  S.  Wright, 


C.  B.  Bowlby, 

J.  A.  Gregg, 

W.  S.  Morton, 

J.  J.  Parker, 

F.  E.  Rice, 

Albert  Scheffer, 
Benjamin  Sommers, 
L.  D.  Wilkes, 


ARCHIVES  (TO  BE  DEPOSITED  IN  CORNER  STONE). 

N.  P.  LANGFORD,  Chairman. 

Russell  Blakeley,  .  Wm.  B.  Dean, 

C.  D.  Elfelt,  John  Espy, 

Alexander  Ramsey,  John  B.  Sanborn, 

E.  V.  Smalley,  H.  P.  Upham. 


ORDER  OF  PROCEEDINGS. 


Raised  seats,  in  tiers,  erected  in  the  main  entrance  to  the 
building,  were  occupied  by  the  speakers  of  the  day,  distin¬ 
guished  guests,  musicians,  and  others,  and  a  large  platform 
immediately  in  front  of  and  adjoining  same  was  occupied  by 
several  thousand  invited  guests  and  citizens. 

The  ceremonies  of  the  day  were  commenced  by  a  procession 
through  some  of  the  principal  streets  of  the  city,  under  the 
direction  of  J.  J.  McCardy,  chief  marshal,  as  follows: 

PARADE. 

The  parade  started  from  Rice  Park  at  2  o’clock  p.  m.;  on  Fifth  street  to 
St  Peter,  to  Sixth,  to  Sibley,  to  Seventh,  to  Wabasha,  to  new  capitol  grounds, 
where  it  was  dismissed. 


FORMATION  OF  COLUMN. 

Mounted  Police. 

Chief  Marshal,  J.  J.  McCardy. 

Chief  of  Staff,  Lieut.  Mortimer  O.  Bigelow,  U.  S.  A. 

M.  N.  Goss,  A.  Scheffer,  C.  R.  Corning,  J.  W.  Bishop,  C.  R.  Smith,  M.  D. 
Flower,  L.  E.  Newport,  Aides. 

The  United  States  Flag,  twenty  by  thirty-six  feet,  carried  horizontally  by 
eighteen  men,  detailed  from  Fifteenth  Minnesota  Infantry. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

Danz-Seibert-Stein  Band. 

Assistant  Marshal,  Col.  C.  G.  Edwards. 

Capt.  J.  C.  Donahower,  Robert  Seng,  Aides. 

Fifteenth  Regiment,  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry,  Col.  J.  C.  Shandrew,  Com¬ 
manding.  Minneapolis  Journal  Newsboys’  Band. 

Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 

4  / 

E.  W.  Mortimer,  Department  Commander  of  Minnesota,  Commanding. 
Personal  Staff  Aides. 


8 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


G.  N.  Morgan  Post  No.  4,  D.  P.  Chase  Post  No.  22,  L.  P.  Plummer  Post  No. 
50,  William  Downs  Post  No.  68,  Appomattox  Post  No.  72,  Levi  Butler 
Post  No.  79,  James  Bryant  Post  No.  119,  John  A.  Rawlins  Post 
No.  126,  Jacob  Scharfer  Post  No.  163,  O.  P.  Morton 
Post  No.  171,  Minneapolis;  Gettysburg  Post  No. 

148,  Garfield  Post  No.  8,  Gen.  Ord  Post 
No.  20,  Acker  Post  No.  21,  St.  Paul. 

Minnesota  Naval  Veterans,  J.  F.  R.  Foss,  Commanding. 

Hastings  Light  Infantry  Band. 

Hastings  Naval  Corps,  Lieut.  W.  C.  King,  Commanding. 

The  Eldridge  Zouaves,  Capt.  R.  F.  Eldridge,  Commanding. 

Veteran  National  Guard  of  Minnesota,  E.  S.  Chittenden,  President, 

Commanding. 

Deutscher  Kreiger  Verein,  Frank  Erling,  President. 

Stillwater  Volunteers,  Lieut  J.  R.  Gilder,  Commanding. 

St.  Paul  Cadets,  Sidney  Zimmerman,  Commanding. 

Battery  A,  Minnesota  National  Guard,  St.  Paul. 

Battery  B,  Minnesota  National  Guard,  Minneapolis,  Maj.  E.  D.  Libby,  Com¬ 
manding  Battalion. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

Gen.  W.  B.  Bend,  Assistant  Marshal. 

A.  S.  Tallmadge,  L.  D.  Wilkes,  Aides. 

Red  Wing  State  Training  School  Band. 

First  Carriage— Gov.  D.  M.  Clough,  Senator  C.  K.  Davis,  ex-Governor  Alex¬ 
ander  Ramsey,  C.  H.  Graves. 

Second  Carriage— Archbishop  John  Ireland,  Bishop  M.  N.  Gilbert,  Senator 
Knute  Nelson,  Channing  Seabury. 

Third  Carriage— Edgar  Weaver,  G.  A.  Du  Toit,  E.  E.  Corliss,  John  De  Laittre. 

Fourth  Carriage— Brig.  Gen.  John  M.  Bacon,  U.  S.  A.;  Col.  A.  B.  Carey,  U.  S. 
A.;  Col.  H.  R.  Tilton,  U.  S.  A.;  Capt.  J.  T.  French,  U.  S.  A. 

Fifth  Carriage— Mayor  A.  R.  Kiefer,  St.  Paul;  Mayor  R.  A.  Pratt,  Minne¬ 
apolis;  Mayor  George  Parker,  Hastings;  Mayor  A.  W. 

Pattee,  Stillwater. 

Sixth  Carriage— Maj.  Thomas  A.  Cummings,  U.  S.  A.;  Cass  Gilbert,  Congress¬ 
man  F.  C.  Stevens,  Congressman  Loren  Fletcher. 

Minnesota  State  Officials,  Secretary  of  State  Albert  Berg  in  Charge. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota.  9 

Ramsey  County  Officials,  D.  M.  Sullivan,  County  Auditor,  in  Charge. 

City  of  St.  Paul  Officials,  Matt  Jensen,  City  Clerk,  in  Charge. 

Old  Settlers’  Association  (in  Carriages),  President  M.  N.  Adams. 
Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers’  Association,  Hon.  L.  W.  Collins,  President. 
Junior  Pioneer  Association  of  Ramsey  County,  W.  R.  Tostevin,  President. 
Rapid  Transit,  1848-1898,  H.  F.  Hoyt  in  Charge. 

Patriarchs  Militant,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  G.  F.  Demules,  Commanding. 
Postoffice  Band. 

St.  Paul  Postoffice  Brigade. 

Knights  of  Pythias,  Col.  E.  H.  Milham,  Commanding. 

Knights  of  St.  George,  A.  F.  Slechta,  Commanding. 

St.  Paul  Newsboys,  A.  M.  Knox,  Commanding. 

St.  Paul  Branch  Stone  Cutters’  Association,  F.  I.  Chase,  President. 
Rad-Cech  No.  12,  C.  S.  P.  S. 

Rad-Melnik  No.  161,  C.  S.  P.  S. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

Minnesota  State  Band. 

H.  N.  Cook,  Assistant  Marshal. 

Personal  Staff  Aides. 

St.  Paul  Fire  Brigade. 

Gov.  D.  M.  Clough,  ex-officio  president  of  the  board,  an¬ 
nounced,  in  order  of  occurrence,  the  following 

PROGRAM  OF  CEREMONIES. 

Music  by  the  Danz-Seibert  band  (60  pieces) — National  Airs. 

Invocation — By  Rt.  Rev.  Archbishop  John  Ireland. 

O  God,  eternal  and  omnipotent,  .Creator  and  Sovereign,  from 
whom  all  things  have  being,  by  whom  all  things  are  ordered  “in 
measure,  and  number,  and  weight,”  we  are  thy  creatures;  we  adore 
thee  as  our  beginning  and  our  end;  we  praise  thee,  we  thank  thee; 
we  submit  ourselves  to  thy  supreme  law,  in  which  alone  is  righteous¬ 
ness,  and  from  which  alone  judgment  must  come. 


10 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


O  God,  we  humbly  pray  thee,  be  with  us  this  day  in  thy  blessings 
and  thy  graces.  Thou  has  said :  “Except  the  Lord  build  the  house, 
they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it  :  except  the  Lord  keep  the  city,  he 
watcheth  in  vain  that  keeps  it.”  Therefore,  O  God,  be  our  protector 
and  our  guide. 

In  thy  name,  O  God,  one  and  triune,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost, 
and  in  the  name  of  him  whom  thou  hast  made  our  mediator,  the  Son 
incarnate,  Jesus  Christ,  we  put  into  its  place  this  corner  stone;  we 
dedicate  to  thy  glory  and  to  the  designs  of  thy  providence  the  struc¬ 
ture  which  will  be  here  erected ;  we  pray  that  during  coming  years  thy 
wisdom  and  thy  justice  dwell  within  it,  and  that  from  its  halls  thy 
divine  spirit  spread  over  the  whole  commonwealth  through  the  min¬ 
istry  of  men  who  shall  come  hither  under  thy  mandate,  O  God  of 
Nations,  to  rule  thy  people. 

Thou  has  said:  “By  me  kings  reign,  and  law  makers  decree  just 
things.”  The  elect  of  the  people  become  the  ministers  of  thy  power 
unto  the  welfare  of  the  people.  Within  this  building,  the  capitol  of 
the  commonwealth  of  Minnesota,  -rulers  will  have  their  abode.  Be 
thou  ever  ready,  we  pray  thee,  to  shed  upon  those  rulers — legislators, 
governors,  judges — the  light  of  thy  divine  face,  that  they  know  their 
responsibility  to  thee,  that  they  make  use  of  their  power  not  for  the 
interest  of  self  but  rather  for  the  interest  of  the  people  over  whom 
they  preside;  that  they  follow  in  all  their  actions  the  laws  of  thy 
righteousness,  in  the  observance  of  which  only  will  there  be  for  the 
people  prosperity  and  happiness. 

O  God,  we  thank  thee  for  thy  bountiful  favors  to  this  State  of 
Minnesota.  Thy  providence  made  it  a  beautiful  and  rich  land,  tem¬ 
pering  its  atmosphere,  fertilizing  its  fields,  directing  the  formation 
of  its  lakes  and  rivers ;  the  people  of  Minnesota  have  entered  into  a 
rich  inheritance  which  was  prepared  for  them  by  thy  love  and  wis¬ 
dom.  We  thank  thee  for  thy  gracious  watchfulness  over  the  people 
of  this  state,  enabling  them  to  live  worthily  of  the  inheritance  which 
they  received  from  thee,  and  by  generous  labor,  strong  civic  virtue 
and  prudent  legislation  to  build  in  this  favored  region  a  glorious 
commonwealth. 

O  God,  we  pray  that  thou  cease  not  to  pour  down  thy  blessings 
upon  this  State  of  Minnesota.  Grant  to  it  healthfulness  of  climate, 
richness  of  soil,  beauty  of  field  and  of  forest,  of  earth  and  of  sky. 
Protect  the  people  of  Minnesota;  accord  ever  to  them  disinterested 
love  of  the  public  welfare,  wisdom  in  government,  obedience  to  law; 
accord  to  them  charity  of  one  another,  that  loving  and  helping  one 
another  they  be  as  children  of  one  family,  under  one  gracious  Father 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


11 


— the  Father  who  is  in  heaven;  accord  to  them,  O  God,  the  fear  and 
love  of  thee  and  of  thy  holy  commandments.  In  thee,  O  God,  we 
put  our  trust:  “Let  thy  mercy,  O  Lord,  be  upon  us,  as  we  have  hoped 
in  thee.” 

O  God,  on  this  solemn  day,  we  beseech  thee,  look  down  in  thy 
love  and  thy  power  upon  the  nation  of  America,  of  which  our  own 
commonwealth  of  Minnesota  is  but  a  part,  from  which  our  own 
commonwealth,  as  the  part  from  the  whole,  receives  its  chief  life 
and  its  chief  glory. 

O  God,  bless  and  protect  America,  to-day  as  thou  hast  done  yes¬ 
terday,  to-morrow  as  thou  dost  to-day.  We  praise  thee,  we  thank 
thee  for  the  victories  which  have  come,  under  thy  all-ruling  provi¬ 
dence,  to  our  army  and  our  navy,  for  the  glory  which  has  been  shed 
upon  the  nation’s  banner.  O  God,  in  this  hour  of  triumph  for 
America,  we  exult  not  in  our  own  strength,  but  in  thy  mighty  coun¬ 
sels:  “The  Lord  hath  looked  from  Heaven;  he  hath  beheld  all  the 
sons  of  men.  The  king  is  not  saved  by  a  great  army,  nor  Shall  the 
giant  be  saved  by  his  own  great  strength.  Our  soul  waiteth  for  the 
Lord,  for  he  is  our  helper  and  protector.”  We  adore  thee,  O  God,  in 
the  designs  which  thou  hast  upon  our  nation  for  the  welfare  of  its 
own  sons,  and  for  that  of  other  nations  of  the  human  family,  over 
which,  too,  thou  extendest  thy  fatherly  care;  and  we  supplicate  thee, 
O  God,  for  wisdom  and  for  strength  that  we  understand  thy  designs 
and  cooperate  with  thee  in  the  fulfillment  thereof.  May  America 
be  never  unworthy  of  favor  from  thee,  the  Sovereign  of  nations;  may 
she  be  never  faithless  to  the  mission  which  thy  mercy  has  assigned 
to  her  people. 

O  God,  we  thank  thee  that  to-day  blessed  peace  hovers  near.  We 
bowed  to  thy  holy  will  when  the  nation  was  summoned  to  meet 
another  nation  in  harsh  conflict  of  war;  wre  hesitated  not  to  make 
upon  the  altars  of  patriotism  generous  offerings  of  precious  lives. 
But,  praised  be  thy  holy  name,  O  God,  if  sacrifice  is  no  longer 
needed,  if  without  further  peril  to  seaman  and  soldier,  without  fur¬ 
ther  agony  to  mother  and  wife,  thy  supreme  designs  are  fulfilled, 
and  war  ceases;  hasten,  we  pray  thee,  the  full  reign  of  peace.  Sway 
to  thy  holy  will  the  ruling  powers  of  America  and  Spain;  banish 
from  minds  and  hearts  anger  and  resentment;  give  place  only  to 
justice  and  to  mercy.  Grant  us,  O  God,  peace  through  thy  own 
mighty  power  and  thy  own  ever-abiding-  charity. 

“Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy  name;  thy 
kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us 
th  s  day  our  daily  bread;  and  forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive 


12 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


those  who  trespass  against  us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation, 
but  deliver  us  from  evil.  Amen.57 

The  following  letter  from  Rt.  Rev.  H.  B.  Whipple  was  read: 

South  Park,  Saxonville,  Mass.,  July  12,  1898. 

To  Eon.  Channing  Seahury, 

Dear  Sir:  I  deeply  regret  that  absence  from  the  state  will  pre¬ 
vent  my  joining  in  the  celebration  of  laying  the  corner  stone  of  our 
new  capitol.  For  thirty-nine  years  I  have  watched  the  development 
of  our  glorious  North  Star  State.  Each  year  has  deepened  my  love, 
and  I  am  grateful  to  God  that  my  lot  has  been  cast  in  such  a  goodly 
heritage.  No  state  in  the  Union  has  a  nobler  history  of  loyalty; 
none  surpass  Minnesota  in  the  works  of  charity  and  education.  We 
have  been  blessed  in  the  character  of  our  foreign  population,  who 
have  been  an  element  of  strength,  and  many  of  their  children  have 
risen  to  places  of  the  highest  honor  and  trust.  We  have  been  spared 
those  religious  strifes  which  fetter  all  Christian  work.  Our  hearts 
have  beat  as  one  in  all  work  for  God  and  man.  I  rejoice  that  we  are 
to  have  a  capitol  worthy  of  our  noble  state.  We  owe  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  commission  who  are  making  our  day  dreams  reali¬ 
ties  in  enduring  marble.  With  high  regard,  yours  faithfully, 

H.  B.  WHIPPLE, 

Bishop  of  Minnesota. 

Hon.  C.  H.  Graves,  of  Duluth,  representing  the  Board  of 
State  Capitol  Commissioners,  then  made  the  following 

INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS. 


Fellow  Citizens: 

The  commissioners  who  are  charged  with  the  duty  of  construct¬ 
ing  this  building  direct  me  to  present  to  your  excellency  the  com¬ 
pleted  foundation,  ready  for  the*  laying  of  the  corner  stone. 

Only  forty-nine  years  ago,  in  September  of  the  year  1849,  the  first 
territorial  legislature  of  Minnesota  assembled  in  a  log  building  at 
the  corner  of  Bench  and  Minnesota  streets  in  this  city,  immediately 
upon  the  bluff  overlooking  the  Mississippi  river,  and,  after  listening 
to  an  address  by  the  Hon.  Alexander  Ramsey,  first  governor,  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  make  lawrs  for  Minnesota,  then  a  territory  of  less  than 
0,000  people.  Governor  Ramsey  is  present  to-day  to  assist  his  suc¬ 
cessor  in  the  duties  of  this  historic  occasion — his  successor  who 


IN  PROCESS  OF  CONSTRUCTION. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


13 


to-day  is  the  executive  of  a  great  state  of  nearly  two  millions  of 
people  and  over  seven  hundred  million  dollars  of  accumulated 
wealth,  built  in  these  few  years  upon  the  foundations  so  well  laid  by 
that  first  governor  and  his  fellow  pioneers.  I  am  tbld  that  there  is 
here  to-day  the  Hon.  John  J.  Ludden,  a  member  of  that  first  legis¬ 
lature.  Upon  this  platform  there  is  also  present  the  man  and  wife 
who,  in  1847,  took  from  the  government  of  the  United  States  as  their 
homestead  160  acres  of  land  of  which  this  site  and  a  large  portion 
of  these  solid  city  avenues  form  a  part.  I  refer  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  A.  L. 
Larpenteur  of  St.  Paul.  I  have  no  doubt  they  wish  they  had  the 
old  farm  again.  And  as  Governor  Ramsey  was  war  governor  of 
1861,  so  Governor  Clough  is  the  war  governor  of  1898.  We  have 
had  each  time  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  The  presence  of 
these  honored  citizens,  who  are  witnesses  of  the  whole  history  of 
the  state,  makes  vivid  our  appreciation  of  the  brevity  of  our  history 
and  of  our  marvelous  rapidity  in  the  building  of  a  commonwealth. 

From  the  humble  log  cabin  in  1849  and  the  buildings  rented  for 
state  purposes  in  succeeding  years  the  state  departments  in  1853 
moved  to  the  first  building  built  for  a  capitol.  But  of  that  structure 
it  is  recorded  that,  until  1866,  the  legislative  halls  were  lighted, 
during  night  sessions,  with  candles,  that  it  was  heated  by  wood- 
burning  stoves,  and  that  all  the  water  used  in  it  was  brought  there 
by  carts.  When  fire  destroyed  it,  in  1881,  its  slight  construction  and 
inflammable  materials  rendering  it  an  easy  prey  to  the  flames,  the 
present  capitol  on  Wabasha  street  was  built,  and  has  been  occupied 
by  the  state  government  to  the  present  time. 

Minnesota  has  been  last  of  all  her  sisters  of  the  West  in  building 
a  state  house  commensurate  with  the  dignity  and  suitable  to  the 
uses  of  a  great  state.  But  in  1893,  appreciating  that  the  time  had 
come  for  a  proper  provision  in  that  regard,  the  legislature  passed  an 
act  to  erect  this  structure,  and  the  present  commission  was  appoint¬ 
ed  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  act. 

The  commission  has  encountered  many  very  difficult  problems,  in 
trying  to  do  their  full  duty  and  obey  the  provisions  of  the  law  under 
which  they  arc*  acting.  It  was  plainly  intended  that  the  building 
was  to  be  the  permanent  capitol  of  this  rapidly  growing  common¬ 
wealth.  It  must  therefore  be  of  proper  dimensions  to  serve  that 
purpose,  as  nearly  fireproof  as  modern  architecture  can  compass;  it 
must  be  of  such  design  as  to  satisfy  the  educated  taste  of  an  intelli¬ 
gent  people;  it  must  not  exceed  in  cost  a  very  limited  amount. 

After  careful  study,  the  commission  found  that  no  building 
smaller  than  the  one  whose  massive  foundations  are  before  you 


14 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


today  would  answer  the  requirements  of  this  state.  Executive,  leg¬ 
islative,  judicial  and  historical  departments  were  to  be  housed,  not 
only  as  they  exist  to-day  but  as  they  will  probably  become  in  the 
near  future.  The  legislative  chambers  must  provide  for  larger  num¬ 
bers  than  the  present  bodies,  their  dimensions  must  be  such  as  to 
accommodate  the  people  who  have  a  right  to  be  spectators  of  legis¬ 
lative  sessions,  and  to  surely  afford  the  ample  air  space  insuring 
perfect  ventilation.  Conveniently  near  must  be  numerous  com¬ 
mittee  rooms  for  both  houses.  The  supreme  court,  with  its  possible 
increase  in  judges;  the  library,  with  its  certain  very  great  increase 
of  books;  the  executive  departments  and  the  enormous  volume  of 
state  archives  and  records,  which  must  have  accessible  storage 
space,  made  these  dimensions  imperative.  And  it  was  also  found 
that  public  sentiment  educated  by  familiarity  with  the  great  capitol 
building  at  Washington,  required  that  this  should  be  a  domed  build¬ 
ing,  with  impressive  approaches  and  extensive  rotunda.  These  ne¬ 
cessities  resulted  in  plans  for  a  very  large  building,  over  400  feet  in 
length,  and  about  200  feet  wide.  The  dimensions  thus  ascertained, 
our  able  and  experienced  architect  has  been  obliged,  in  order  to  keep 
within  the  cost  fixed  by  the  law  of  1893,  to  adopt  a  simple  style  of 
architecture,  almost  severely  plain,  and  the  committee  has  been  lim¬ 
ited  to  the  use  of  such  materials  as  would  be  suitable  and  effective 
in  a  building  of  such  design,  and  yet  be  of  low  cost.  But  few  adorn¬ 
ments  and  no  statuary  can  be  included,  and  while  no  essentials  of 
strength  will  be  neglected,  the  building  will  depend  for  its  beauty 
on  proper  proportions  and  massive  outlines. 

The  interior  of  such  a  building  ought  to  be  finished  with  the 
most  beautiful  of  native  and  foreign  stone,  and  made  an  object  of 
art,  educative  of  the  taste  of  our  people  and  inspiring  their  pride;  but 
as  it  is  necessary  to  expend  practically  all  of  the  appropriation  in 
securing  a  building  of  proper  size  and  convenient  arrangement,  the 
commission,  strictly  adhering  to  the  terms  of  the  law  under  which 
they  are  acting,  may  be  obliged  to  use  ordinary  wood  work  for 
interior  finish  and  leave  plain  walls,  unless  the  state  in  its  wisdom 
shall  make  other  provisions. 

But  how  many  of  you  really  appreciate  the  state  in  which  you 
live?  How  long  would  it  take  you  to  visit  it  overfall  its  railroads? 
How  long  by  horse  and  wagon — the  old  means  of  transportation? 
You  would  have  to  begin  at  the  southeast  portion,  in  those  rich  val¬ 
leys,  where  every  farmer,  they  say,  is  a  capitalist.  Across  those 
magnificent  prairies  you  would  proceed  where  even  now  the  wheat  is 
turning  golden  with  the  promise  of  harvest.  Thence  you  might  con- 


SENATOR  DAVIS  DELIVERING  THE  ORATION,  JULY  27th,  1898. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


15 


tinue  to  the  northeast  to  where  the  hardy  miner  is  busy  excavating 
the  bowels  of  the  earth  in  search  of  buried  treasure.  Thence  south 
to  these  Twin  Cities,  these  great  hives  of  industry.  Such  a  state 
may  well  inspire  your  pride.  Such  a  state  has  brought  such  a  peo¬ 
ple  as  are  here.  And  such  a  people  may  well  inspire  your  pride. 
Such  a  state  and  such  a  people  deserve  a  capitol  that  they  may  be 
proud  to  exhibit  to  a  stranger. 

Your  excellency,  the  commission  has  given  to  this  labor  its  most 
faithful  and  conscientious  thought  and  care.  Let  the  corner 
stone  be  well  and  truly  laid.  May  this  building  be  the  birthplace  of 
wise  laws,  enacted  by  honest  and  incorruptible  legislators,  inter¬ 
preted  by  a  fearless  and  learned  court,  and  administered  by  loyal 
officers  of  the  state.  Then,  indeed,  will  God  bless  the  commonwealth 
of  Minnesota. 

Music:  “Stars  and  Stripes.” — Sousa. 

Hon.  Cushman  K.  Davis  of  St.  Paul  then  delivered  the  fol¬ 
lowing 


ORATION. 

We  have  met  to  perform  a  great  political  ceremony;  to  dedicate, 
by  an  impressive  symbolism,  employed  by  many  nations  throughout 
all  time,  the  edifice  which  represents  and  typifies  the  state. 

An  ideal  significance  inheres  in  every  act  by  which  the  hand  of 
man,  guided  by  his  will,  his  reason,  and  his  imagination,  seizes  the 
forms  of  matter,  and  compels  them  to  artistic  or  useful  expressions. 

The  veriest  utilitarian  mechanism,  those  slaves  of  man,  the  cre¬ 
ations  of  his  genius  which  do  his  work,  the  most  luxurious  products 
of  his  imaginative  art, — everything  from  the  reaper  and  the  sewing 
machine  to  the  painting  in  which  nature  is  given  a  beauty  beyond 
her  own,  or  the  musical  composition  in  which  sound  expresses  har¬ 
monies  sweeter  far  than  any  heard  in  groves, — has  its  transcendental 
significance  which  is  the  very  soul  of  the  material  creation. 

Architecture  has  been  wisely  called  by  Rusk  in  “the  distinctively 
political  art.”  State  edifices,  as  works  of  art,  disclose  a  political 
significance  beyond  their  manifest  utilities. 

The  corner  stone  has  always  conveyed  a  mystical  and  symbolic 
meaning,  even  in  divine  utterances.  Super  hanc  petram  edificabo 
meam  ecclesiam  were  the  words  by  which  Jesus  disclosed  his  purpose 
to  construct,  as  upon  a  rock,  the  great  and  enduring  temple  of  our 


16 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


faith.  And  when  he  desired  to  impart  the  conception  of  a  spiritual 
edifice,  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,  of  which  the 
immutable  basis  should  be  himself,  he  said,  in  the  words  of  the 
Psalmist: 

“Did  ye  never  read  in  the  scriptures,  The  stone  which  the  builders 
rejected,  the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner:  this  is  the 
Lord’s  doing,  and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes?” 

It  is  forty-nine  years  and  two  months  this  day  since  Alexander 
Ramsey,  the  first  governor  of  Minnesota,  landed  in  St.  Paul.  There 
was  then  no  government  organization  in  the  territory.  A  census 
showed  that,  in  June,  1849,  it  contained  only  4,940  white  people. 
To  a  degree  perhaps  unprecedented  in  our  history  society  existed 
only  in  its  original  elements.  There  were  no  courts,  no  legislature, 
no  executive,  and  it  was  doubtful  if  there  were  any  laws.  Wiscon¬ 
sin  had  then  recently  been  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  state,  and 
no  provision  had  been  made  for  the  government  of  that  portion  of 
Minnesota  which  had  been  a  part  of  Wisconsin.  Minnesota  was 
a  political  derelict  upon  the  sea  of  Time. 

By  proclamation  of  Governor  Ramsey,  issued  June  1,  1849,  the 
territory  was  declared  to  be  duly  organized.  By  that  fiat  what  had 
been  a  mere  primitive  social  aggregation  became  a  state  under  the 
name  of  a  territory.  The  first  session  of  its  legislature  was  held  in 
the  dining-room  of  a  tavern. 

It  now  becomes  us  to  withdraw  for  a  moment  our  thoughts  from 
the  “madding  crowd’s  ignoble  strife'’  of  these  latter  days,  from  the 
eager  activities  of  business,  from  the  subtle  chicane  of  sordid  contro¬ 
versies,  from  the  arena  of  the  political  games,  from  the  frivolities 
of  social  indulgence,  even  from  the  navies  which  have  made  the  seas 
tremble  with  their  wrath  and  power  and  from  the  armies  which  have 
set  the  stars  of  the  flag  among  the  constellations  of  tropical  and  anti¬ 
podal  skies,  from  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  which  now  are  ours,  from 
the  frozen  gold  of  the  Klondike,  from  all  the  multitudinous  and 
rejoicing  elements  of  our  power  and  happiness  as  a  people,  and  to 
contemplate  one  single  personal  fact. 

Governor  Ramsey  survives.  The  hand  that  laid  the  ideal  foun¬ 
dation  of  this  state  fifty  years  ago,  in  the  dining-room  of  a  frontier 
tavern,  now  lays  the  corner  stone  of  this,  the  capitol  of  the  completed 
commonwealth.  Memory  spans  with  its  triumphal  arch  the  breadth 
of  half  a  century.  Upon  every  year  of  which  that  arch  is  built  his 
acts  as  governor,  senator,  secretary  of  war,  diplomatic  negotiator 
and  citizen  are  ineffaceably  inscribed. 

It  is  only  the  ideal  and  spiritual  work  that  is  eternal.  The  arch 
of  Titus  and  the  column  of  Trajan  are  now  merely  the  monuments 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota . 


IT 


of  an  imperial  ruin.  Their  worn  inscriptions  are  of  conquests  won 
by  blood  and  quickly  lost;  but  this  more  than  triumphal  arch,  this 
ideal  span  of  imperishable  grandeur  and  everlasting  beauty,  will 
present  to  posterity  the  indestructable  record  of  peace,  good  will, 
common  sense  and  civic  wisdom  by  which  a  state  was  made. 

Other  people  must  decipher  ancient  records,  or  lay  close  the  ear 
to  the  almost  inaudible  murmurs  of  tradition  expressed  in  the 
broken  cadence  of  primeval  ballads,  to  be,  after  all,  insufficiently 
instructed  what  their  beginning  were.  It  is  not  so  with  us.  The 
men  who  did  these  mighty  works  have  lived  among  us.  We  have 
heard  their  voices;  we  have  clasped  tljeir  hands;  they  have  been 
not  viewed  in  Elysian  fields  as  shadowy  precursors  of  themselves, 
nor  have  we  seen  them  dimly  through  the  mists  of  times  that  are 
past.  These  men  were  like  unto  one  another,  and  their  primate  is 
with  us  to-day.  Governor  Ramsey  survives,  and  long  may  he  abide 
among  us  to  witness  the  exceeding  great  results  of  the  work  begun  • 
by  him  and  his  associates  fifty  years  ago  in  this  very  place. 

This  structure  embodies  in  marble  and  granite  the  modern  con¬ 
ception  of  a  free  and  independent  state.  It  does  this  both  in  its 
general  form  and  in  its  details.  Precisely  as  the  State  of  Minnesota 
is,  in  its  political  construction,  compounded  of  the  selected  results 
of  the  efforts  and  experience  of  many  people  throughout  the  world 
and  for  thousands  of  years,  by  which  the  blessings  of  liberty  have 
been  secured  to  man  socially  and  personally,  so  this  capitol  blends 
and  presents  in  architectural  harmony  the  utility  and  beauty  which 
the  industry  and  genius  of  many  ages  have  compelled  stone  and  iron 
and  wood  and  color  to  embody.  The  Grecian  column,  the  Hindoo 
dome,  the  Roman  wall,  the  Gothic  arch,  the  mural  painting,  the 
tinted  glass,  the  pictorial  tile,  the  mediaeval  decoration,  will  repre¬ 
sent,  in  this  structure,  the  thought  and  effort  of  many  ages  in  many 
lands. 

The  very  word  “capitol”  implies  government  by  the  people.  No 
such  edifice  as  this  was  ever  raised  in  a  monarchy.  There  the  palace 
is  the  home  of  the  sovereign  and  the  abiding  place  of  paternal 
authority.  “Capitol”  is  derived  from  the  Latin  word  caput,  the 
head,  and  it  expresses  the  intellectual  and  volitional  locus  of  popular 
government. 

This  building  will  be  the  great  political  sensorium  of  Minnesota, 
the  head  wherein  the  vision,  the  hearing,  the  will,  the  reason,  the 
imagination,  the  conscience  of  a  great  people  will  perform  their 
imperial  functions. 


2 


18 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


In  ancient  times  sucli  a  ceremony  as  this  was  not  merely  a 
political  act.  It  was  also  a  divine  consecration.  In  Rome  this 
home  of  the  state  was  both  capitol  and  temple.  It  was  built  on  the 
site  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter.  The  gods  inhabited  it.  Their  altars 
were  there.  The  kings,  the  consuls  and  the  Roman  fathers  were 
not  only  soldiers  and  statesmen;  they  were  also  priests.  The  capitol 
was  therefore  both  the  head  of  the  government  and  the  shrine  of 
the  national  worship.  It  represented  the  indestructibility  of  the  Ro¬ 
man  state  and  the  eternity  of  its  spiritual  faith.  Neither  should 
ever  perish  while  that  shrine  endured. 

“ Dum  domus  Aeneae  Capdtoli  immobile  saxum  Accolet,  impcriumque 
pater  Romanus  hdbebit”  was  the  prophecy  of  Virgil,  predicting  an 
empire  which  should  never  end  so  long  as  its  capitol  should  stand. 

The  statesman  and  the  priest  have  ceased  to  be  identical,  but 
the  faith  has  survived  in  a  purer  form,  and  it  teaches  men  no  lesson 
more  impressive  and  .momentous  than  this,  that  God  protects  and 
maintains  those  states  which  govern  in  righteousness,  and  brings 
to  nothingness  the  beauty  and  excellency  of  those  that  go  the  op¬ 
pressor’s  way.  The  identity  of  faith  and  patriotism  still  remains, 
and  therefore  we  this  day  dedicate  and  consecrate  this  marble  pile 
in  the  name  of  the  state,  and  invoke  upon  it  and  upon  all  that  it  rep¬ 
resents  the  favor  and  protection  of  Almighty  God. 

The  reappearance,  in  modern  times,  of  the  capitol  is  entirely  an 
American  conception.  The  capitol  of  the  Roman  republic  was  the 
solitary  example  of  such  a  building  furnished  by  antiquity,  and  after 
Rome  fell  no  European  nation  ever  constructed  another  one.  It 
was  built  to  be  a  function  and  seat  of  popular  government,  by  a 
people  who  ruled  by  the  exercise  of  legislative  power,  through 
executive  and  judicial  officers,  who  were  chosen  for  short  terms, 
and  whose  responsibility  to  the  senate  and  people — Senatus  Popa- 
lusque  Romanus — was  severe,  direct  and  immediate.  In  no  respect 
has  the  majesty  of  Rome  been  so  imperious  and  enduring  as  in  its 
power,  after  more  than  two  thousand  years,  to  restore  to  the  people 
the  form  and  the  substance  of  popular  legislative  government. 

In  time  this  form  of  government  was  changed.  Little  by  little 
the  emperors  absorbed  the  powers  of  the  senate,  destroyed  the 
political  functions  of  the  people,  and  finally  became  absolute.  When 
that  result  was  accomplished  the  necessity  ceased  for  a  capitol  in 
which  a  senate  should  meet  and  legislate  under  responsibility  to 
the  people.  The  capitol  became  an  anachronism.  The  palace  be¬ 
came  the  home  of  political  power.  The  monarchy  became  the 
conception  of  all  the  succeeding  European  nations,  and  the  palace 
the  architectural  type  of  that  political  idea. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


19  * 


There  is  not  now  in  Europe,  and  there  never  has  been  since  the 
Roman  capitol  ceased  to  exist,  any  capitol  building.  There  have 
been  legislative  halls,  stadthouses,  parliament  houses,  halls  of  jus¬ 
tice,  but  there  has  not  been  one  single  edifice  expressing  like  this 
the  entire  power  of  the  people  and  their  right  to  govern  themselves 
and  the  state  which  they  have  created. 

In  the  progress  of  time  the  political  conception  of  government 
by  the  people  through  their  delegated  legislative,  executive  and 
judicial  servants,  revived  and  was  made  efficient  and  dominant  by 
the  institution  of  the  United  States  as  a  nation.  The  senate  re¬ 
appeared  and  also  a  house  of  representatives,  being  an  expansion 
of  the  political  conception  of  the  centuries  and  curies.  The  office 
of  president  was  very  like  that  of  a  consul  for  four  years,  to  which 
was  added  certain  tribunitian  powers. 

These  analogies  are,  of  course,  not  perfect.  They  have  many 
gaps,  and  fail  to  approach  each  other  at  many  points.  But  they 
exist  nevertheless  with  very  instructive  force.  The  thing  which 
had  been  became  the  thing  which  should  be,  and,  accordingly,  a 
capitol  was  built  in  the  new  republic,  and  capitols  were  built  in  the 
const  iluent  republics,  the  states. 

It  is  well  to  pause  here  to  discern  and  appreciate  the  significance 
of  this  renascence  of  an  ancient  system  and  an  ancient  edifice.  We 
perceive  immediately  that  it  is  much  more  than  the  mere  apparition 
of  a  dead  and  buried  political  system.  It  embodies  many  features 
which  the  Roman  system  either  did  not  contain  at  all,  or  contained 
in  a  mere  germinal  form,  namely  the  postulate  of  the  personal 
equality  of  man  to  man,  of  the  equality  of  rights  and  status,  of 
liberty  of  conscience,  of  thought  and  its  expression,  of  the  equality 
and  personality  of  woman,  of  the  criminality  of  slavery,  of  universal 
suffrage,  of  the  impolicy  of  an  hereditary  aristocracy  and  of  the 
absolute  supremacy  of  the  people  in  all  political  administration. 

The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected  thus  became  the  head  of 
the  corner. 

Looking  further  and  deeper  for  the  ideal  fact,  and  therefore  the 
essential  and  enduring  fact,  latent  and  yet  perceptible  in  this  edifice, 
we  discover  the  Greek  demos,  the  Senatus  Populusque  Roman- 
us,  the  Teutonic  council,  the  Saxon  Wittena  gennote,  the  English 
parliament,  the  supreme  councils,  by  whatever  name,  of  many  na¬ 
tions,  by  each  of  which,  for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  the 
liberty  of  men  and  the  general  well  being  of  humanity  have  been 
promoted. 

Nothing  that  is  good  ever  perishes.  It  is  only  the  thing  that  is 
evil  that  ceases  to  endure.  Tlere  are  concentrated  the  excellencies 


20 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


of  many  generations;  those  of  the  few  men  whose  names  history 
has  made  imperishable  and  those  of  the  myriads  of  earnest  workers 
for  humanity  whose  labors  and  names  have  not  been  recorded. 
The  builders  of  this  abiding  place  of  a  modern  state  are  not  alone 
the  men  and  women  of  the  present  day.  Invisible  and  spiritual 
hands  have  toiled  upon  this  edifice.  Gigantic  and  majestic  phan¬ 
toms  of  the  past  will  round  this  dome  and  groin  the  arch,  and  will, 
all  throughout,  inform  this  structure  with  a  transcendent  signifi¬ 
cance  more  enduring  and  expressive  than  it  bronze  and  stone. 

You  will  not  require  me  to  exhibit  the  statistics  of  the  marvelous 
growth  of  Minnesota.  It  is  not  necessary  to  exhibit  them.  This 
audience  has  achieved  the  results  which  such  numerals  would  ex¬ 
press,  and  it  knows  the  sum  and  the  details  of  this  labor  of  its  own 
hands.  But  it  will  be  well  to  take  some  account  of  certain  present 
conditions,  not  thoroughly  understood  because  they  are  so  recent 
that  time  has  not  yet  been  sufficient  to  make  them  the  subject  of  ma¬ 
ture  thought.  The  duties  of  man  are  largely  with  the  future.  This 
is  also  true  as  to  the  duties  of  states.  The  present  occasion  requires 
that  we  contemplate  the  part  which  Minnesota,  as  a  component  of 
the  United  States,  is  destined  to  play  in  the  swelling  act  of  the  .most 
imperial  theme  of  all  the  ages. 

The  nineteenth  century  is  receding;  we  are  passing  from  it. 
The  twentieth  century  rises  before  us  like  a  continent.  The  one 
hundred  years  about  to  end  have  been  the  most  eventful  and  pro¬ 
ductive  of  any  epoch.  Not  in  any  century  has  more  been  accom¬ 
plished  for  the  well  being  of  mankind;  but  far  exceeding  any  other 
has  been  its  preparatory  work  for  the  accomplishment  of  sublime 
purposes.  I  can  only  indicate  here  this  preparation  by  a  broad 
and  suggestive  generalization.  It  consists  of  useful  inventions,  of 
general  education  and  of  an  increased  participation  by  the  people 
in  the  administration  of  governments.  In  achieving  all  this  man¬ 
kind  has  often  “seen  through  a  glass  darkly,”  and  has  executed 
the  purposes  of  an  inspiration  of  which  it  was  not  conscious. 

It  has  recently  been  revealed  with  astonishing  clearness  that 
the  civilization  of  Europe,  and  also  that  of  the  United  States  par¬ 
ticularly,  have  been  in  an  unconscious  process  of  preparation  for 
destinies  heretofore  unperceived.  In  what  manner  the  performance 
is  to  be  I  do  not  venture  to  predict.  To  do  so  would  be  the  merest 
speculative  temerity.  The  great  movements  of  humanity  are  orig¬ 
inated,  directed  and  controlled  by  a  Supreme  Power.  Man  merely 
utilizes  them.  If  he  attempts  to  thwart  them,  they  crush  him.  No 
state  ever  yet  diverted  any  of  the  purposes  or  ultimates  of  its  own 
existence. 


.New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


21 


It  is  now.  apparent  to  the  least  attentive  observer  that  a  great 
secular  change  is  taking  place  throughout  the  world.  Ancient 
international  balances  have  become  unpoised.  Old  pivots  of  equi¬ 
librium  have  ceased  to  be  central.  Commercial  and  territorial  ad¬ 
vantages  which,  until  recently,  seemed  to  be  impregnably  fortified 
by  national  wrealth,  by  military  and  naval  preponderance,  by  pres¬ 
tige,  alliance  and  prescription  have  been  encroached  upon  and 
endangered.  The  process  has  been  irresistible.  It  has  not  been 
solely  effected  by  wars;  they  have  been  merely  its  instruments. 
It  has  proceeded  with  the  calm,  daily,  resistless  force  of  a  great 
creative  operation  of  nature.  Humanity  has,  at  intervals,  repeat¬ 
edly  accomplished  such  movements.  They  have  been  more  over¬ 
powering  than  conquests,  more  enduring  than  empire — for  mon¬ 
archies  have  been  built  upon  their  surface,  have  encumbered  or 
adorned  them  for  a  little  time,  as  time  is  measured  in  the  life  of 
nations,  and  then  their  ruins  have  been  borne  along  in  the  august 
and  unceasing  procession.  The  mysterious  Aryan  migration  was 
one  of  these  evolutions.  It  went  around  the  world.  It  re-entered 
India  with  the  English.  It  is  now  forcing  its  entrance  into  China. 

The  results  of  the  mediaeval  impulse  or  inspiration  toward  mari¬ 
time  discovery  are  disclosed  in  histories;  but  who  can  designate 
the  causes  that  impelled  the  nations,  at  about  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  to  run  the  course  of  all  the  seas,  until  by  that 
generation  America  was  discovered,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was 
circumnavigated,  the  Straits  of  Magellan  wrere  traversed,  and  until 
great  Ocean  held  no  secrets  that  were  not  locked  in  the  ice  of  either 
pole?  The  results  surpassed  any  political  conception  ever  bodied 
forth  by  statesman,  philosopher,  or  poet. 

It  has  always  remained  an  insoluble  problem  of  that  great 
achievement  of  discovery  and  conquest,  why  China,  which  w  as  even 
then  in  the  decrepitude  of  age,  though  retaining  great  wealth  with 
all  the  tenacity  of  senile  avarice,  was  unmolested,  until  very  recently, 
by  the  forces  which  possessed  America  and  the  Indies.  It  was, 
when  the  age  of  discovery  began,  the  oldest  empire  in  the  world;  it 
was  the  largest  and  richest;  it  contained  one-fourth  of  the  human 
race,  and  it  was  easily  vulnerable.  Why  did  England  limit  herself 
to  India?  Why  did  Spain  stop  at  Manila?  Why  did  the  Dutch 
remain  satisfied  with  Java,  Borneo,  Sumatra,  and  New  Guinea? 
Why  was  France  content  with  her  precarious  Indian  establish- 
nu  nts?  Why  was  Portugal  stationary  at  Goa,  Timor,  and  Macao? 

Why  China  was  spared  is  perhaps  a  profitless  speculation.  We 
now  encounter  the  fact  that,  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century, 


22 


Laying  of  the  Corner  IS  tone. 

the  oldest,  the  most  populous,  and  one  of  the  most  extensive  and 
richest  of  empires,  immobile  by  the  'ossification  of  an  immemorial 
civilization,  which  long  ago  did  its  work;  an  empire  infected  all 
throughout  with  official  imbecility  and  corruption;  an  empire  which 
for  a  long  time  forcibly  resisted  the.  influences  of  western  civiliza¬ 
tion  and  then  submitted  to  them  little  by  little,  only  to  impede 
them  by  feeble  and  crafty  evasions;  an  empire  which  has  not  dis¬ 
solved  in  its  decadence,  but  yet  remains  in  respect  of  population 
the  most  stupendous  national  unit  of  this  or  any  age,  industrious, 
productive,  selling  much  and  buying  little  even  now  as  in  her  re* 
molest  ages;  which  for  thousands  of  years  lias  received  the  precious 
metals  in  an  unreturning  stream;  whose  inhabitants  are  skilled 
in  all  crafts,  and  possess  unsurpassed  aptitude  alike  for  mechanical 
construction  and  for  commerce;  an  empire  which  possesses  the  ele- 
ments  of  national  greatness  in  the  intelligence  of  its  people,  in  the 
entire  absence  of  caste,  in  the  absolute  personal  equality  of  all  men, 
and  in  their  eligibility  to  all  vocations  and  offices,  in  the  nonexist¬ 
ence  of  any  repressive  religious  system,  and  in  universal  education, 
has  all  at  once  yielded  without  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of 
Europe,  and  is  about  to  become,  as  literally  as  were  Mexico  and 
Peru,  the  subject  of  its  designs,  and  in  effect  its  territorial  depend 
ency.  History  has  nowhere  recorded  a  change  so  vast  and  por¬ 
tentous.  It  involves  the  most  prodigious  expansion  of  commerce 
and  empire  ever  effected.  It  influences  the  relations  of  all  civilized 
states,  and  front  every  point  of  view  it  endangers  the  safety  of  many 
of  them.  In  all  respects  the  interests  of  the  United  States  in  this 
transformation  are  of  the  most  vital  character. 

It  will  be  well  to  notice  certain  other  ethnic  and  national  phe¬ 
nomena,  cotemporaneous  with  this  great  process,  and  which  have 
contributed  to  it.  Within  the  present  century  the  nations  of  Europe 
have  politically  and  definitely  arranged  themselves  by  races.  The 
boundaries  of  empires  have  been  readjusted  to  this  classification. 
The  Slavonic,  the  Latin,  and  the  Teutonic  stocks  present  themselves 
nationally  and  most  determinately  in  this  aspect.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
race  had  long  before  classified  itself  into  two  great  political  organi¬ 
zations. 

But  it  was  not  until  very  recently  that  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  looked  each  other  in  the  face  with  any  sign  of  recog¬ 
nition  of  their  political  relationship.  It  is  well  for  them,  for  civiliza¬ 
tion,  for  national  independence,  and  for  personal  freedom,  that 
they  have  begun  to  do  so.  The  isolation  of  England  from  the  other 
states  of  Europe  is  manifest.  Her  isolation  from  the  United  States 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


23 


has  always  existed,  and  principally  as  the  result  of  petty  differences 
as  to  boundaries,  fisheries,  sterile  treaties,  and  small  conflicting 
policies  in  other  respects.  The  United  States  has  been  isolated  by 
a  special  policy,  and  by  its  geographical  position. 

The  coalescence  of  nationalities  has  been  accompanied  by  a  vast 
territorial  acquisition  by  the  European  states,  by  which  the  conti¬ 
nent  of  Africa  has  been  partitioned  among  them.  The  boundaries 
of  German  Africa,  French  Africa,  Portuguese  Africa,  Spanish  Africa, 
and  English  Africa  are  in  course  of  definite  detemination.  An 
Italian  Africa  seemed  probable,  and  would  have  been  established 
but  for  the  ability  of  King  Menelek,  who  defeated  the  European 
invaders  and  practically  expelled  them  from  his  kingdom.  It  is 
now  asserted  that  the  Abyssinian  monarch  was,  throughout  his 
struggle  with  Italy,  advised  and  aided  by  Russia,  and  that  we  may 
expect  soon  to  witness  a  Russian  Africa.  The  general  direction  of 
this  movement  in  Africa  is  toward  the  Orient.  Its  most  active 
manifestations  and  capital  centers  are  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa, 
and  in  Madagascar,  fronting  the  Indian  Ocean  and  looking  toward 
India. 

There  is  also  to  be  noticed  another  significant  eastward  tendency. 
Whether  it  is  a  mere  coincidence,  or  is  a  part  of  the  general  political 
and  commercial  movement  is  at  present  purely  conjectural.  It  is 
not  a  conjectural  statement,  however,  that  these  great  human  pre¬ 
cessions  are  always  accompanied  by  ancillary  changes  of  pre¬ 
existing  forces  and  conditions  with  which  their  connection  cannot 
always  be  distinctly  perceived.  The  center  of  manufacturing  pro¬ 
duction  in  Europe  is  moving  eastward.  Germany  has  become,  wuth- 
in  the  last  thirty  years,  a  great  manufacturing  nation.  She  has 
ceased  to  be  a  tnarket,  in  any  great  degree,  for  any  other  country. 
She  builds  her  own  ships.  She  produces  an  infinite  variety  of 
manufactured  articles  of  all  kinds — textile,  metallic,  and  miscel¬ 
laneous.  Her  sugar  product  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
country.  She  has  become  a  leading  maritime  and  commercial  na¬ 
tion,  and  is  seeking  for  markets  with  astonishing  energy  in  South 
America,  in  Africa,  and  most  rapaciously  in  China,  where  she  has 
recently  established  herself  by  military  and  naval  force,  and  is 
seriously  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  process  of  exploiting  her  power 
in  that  great  empire. 

The  movement  of  Russia  toward  the  East  is  not  a  mere  tendency. 
It  has  been  in  actual  operation  ever  since  Peter  the  Great  sent 
Vitus  Bering  overland  from  St.  Petersburg  to  the  sea  which  bears 
his  name.  It  is  now  exhibiting  its  Titanic  energy  in  the  construe- 


24 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


tion  of  the  trans-Siberian  railway.  This  undertaking  has  acceler¬ 
ated  the  recent  action  of  the  other  European  powers  in  regard  to 
China,  and  has  stimulated  Japan  to  exertions,  which  will  soon 
make  her  the  fourth  naval  power  of  the  world.  It  will  conduct  a 
stream  of  European  migration  into  Asia.  This  route  to  the  Orient 
portends  so  much,  and  has  made  so  secondary  the  importance  of 
the  way  to  Constantinople,  in  comparison  with  this  greater  high¬ 
way  toward  Asiatic  empire,  that  the  guideboard  which  Catherine 
set  up  at  Kherson,  and  inscribed,  “The  road  to  Constantinople,” 
marks  merely  a  footpath  to  a  hamlet. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  elaborate  upon  the  interests  of  the  United 
States  in  the  present  and  prospective  situation.  They  present  and 
enforce  themselves  from  every  point  of  view.  The  maritime,  com¬ 
mercial  and  political  genius  of  the  American  people  will  not  per¬ 
mit  Iheir  government  to  be  indifferent  to  them.  It  will  not  suffer 
the  United  States  to  be  made  the  China  of  the  West.  The  great 
question  remains,  and  comprehends  the  commercial  and  all  other 
subjects.  What  action  by  the  United  States  do  its  peace  and  safety 
require  to  insure  to  it  the  rightful  and  most  advantageous  results 
of  these  new  international  relations  and  adjustments?  The  situa¬ 
tion  in  the  Chinese  Orient  is  pregnant  wTith  wars,  and  wars,  in 
these  days  of  fleets  built  of  steel  and  driven  by  steam,  are  different 
from  those  of  the  times  of  wooden  walls  and  sails.  There  is  not 
an  habitable  spot  on  the  earth’s  surface  too  remote  or  secluded, 
or  too  strong  to  be  exempt  from  the  attacks  of  rapacious  and  un¬ 
scrupulous  military  and  naval  power.  All  history  is  false  or  this 
is  true,  that  such  wars  are  inevitable.  Their  arena  has  been  enor¬ 
mously  extended.  The  recent  aggressions  by  the  powers  of  Europe 
upo:i  China  were  acts  of  war.  It  is  not  long  since  that  the  war 
between  Japan  and  China  ended  by  depriving  the  latter  power  of 
her  fleet,  by  compelling  her  to  pay  an  enormous  indemnity,  and 
provisionally  to  cede  a  portion  of  her  territory  of  the  greatest  mili¬ 
tary  and  naval  importance,  of  which  Japan  was  in  her  turn  deprived 
by  the  duress  of  Russia  and  Germany,  only  to  see  Russia  substan¬ 
tially  acquire  the  same  territory,  and  Germany  make  a  compensa¬ 
tory  seizure  near  by. 

Next  to  China  the  Pacific  possessions  of  the  United  States  are 
the  most  inviting  objects  of  attack.  Under  existing  conditions 
their  defense  weuld  be  difficult.  Had  Spain  triumphed  at  Manila 
as  decisively  as  did  the  United  States,  her  navy  could  have  seized 
Honolulu,  and  have  operated  from  there  upon  the  coast  of  the 
United  States  from  Mexico  to  the  Yukon.  An  overpowering  Euro- 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota.  25 

pean  force  in  the  Asiatic  waters  could  do  the  same  thing;  so  could 
Japan. 

The  situation  is  plainly  one  of  alternatives.  The  United  States 
must  become  an  efficient  element  in  the  Asiatic  situation,  or  it  must 
entirely  abstain  from  any  participation  in  it,  return  to  its  own 
shores,  receive  the  smallest  possible  share  of  its  commercial  ad¬ 
vantages,  and  prepare  for  its  own  defense  against  the  same  ag¬ 
gressions  which  have  reduced  China  to  her  present  condition.  It 
may  be  objected  that  all  this  is  without  precedent.  So  it  is.  But 
all  great  human  evolutions  must  precede  precedents  in  order  to 
create  them. 

The  present  war  has  restored  confidence  to  those  who  feared 
that  the  spirit  of  our  people  and  their  patriotism  had  been  ener¬ 
vated  by  a  long  and  prosperous  peace.  That  they  would  support 
the  government  no  one  doubted.  But  it  was  only  faintly  hoped 
that  a  war,  not  onorous  when  compared  with  our  resources,  would 
completely  fuse  all  political  and  sectional  differences  into  unanim¬ 
ity  of  support  to  the  honor,  dignity  and  safety  of  the  nation. 

It  is  now  manifest  that  the  United  States  will  be,  at  the  con¬ 
clusion  of  this  war,  a  great  and  actual  naval  and  military  power. 
Many  thousands  of  her  citizens  will  be  trained  to  modern  warfare  on 
land  and  sea.  The  military  spirit  has  inspired  the  people.  They 
have  been  raised  to  a  higher  plane  of  patriotism.  The  additions  to 
our  fleet  have  been  very  considerable,  and  that  fleet  will  never  be 
less.  The  appropriations  for  its  increase,  already  liberal,  will  con¬ 
tinue  to  be  so.  The  astounding  victories  of  Commodore  Dewey  and 
Commodore  Schley  have  convinced  our  people  of  the  vital  impor¬ 
tance  of  the  sea  power.  The  organization  and  operations  of  a  great 
army  and  navy  will  teach  them  their  own  strength. 

The  heroism  of  our  soldiers  and  sailors  will  be  a  heritage  of 
national  glory  and  honor.  Our  people  were  carried  to  the  highest 
top  of  national  pride  by  witnessing  at  Manila  and  Santiago  (to 
paraphrase  Napier),  with  what  majesty  the  American  sailor  fights. 
It  is  also  perceived  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  that  certain  ex¬ 
ponents  of  European  opinion  who  until  recently  spoke  with  a  con¬ 
descending  assumption  of  superiority  of  intervening  in  the  present 
contest,  have  abated  their  hauteur  of  expression. 

The  Monroe  doctrine,  in  the  sense  of  an  intention  by  this  gov¬ 
ernment  to  intervene  to  prevent  encroachments  by  European  na¬ 
tions  upon  the  republics  of  the  Western  Hemisphere,  has  been 
confirmed,  and  has  received  a  steadying  force.  The  press  of  conti¬ 
nental  Europe  has  adopted,  during  the  last  few  years,  a  fashion 


26 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone . 


of  resenting  even  any  theoretical  assertion  of  this  great  principle 
of  American  security,  which  was  recently  characterized  by  Prince 
Bismarck  as  a  doctrine  of  “uncommon  insolence.”  It  is  now  prob¬ 
able  that  any  European  power  will  deliberate  before  acting  upon 
that  assumption. 

The  necessity  for  the  immediate  construction  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal  has  been  undeniably  demonstrated  by  recent  events.  The 
voyage  and  perils  of  the  Oregon  are  conclusive  upon  this  propo¬ 
sition. 

The  unpleasant  relations  which  have  existed  between  the  United 
States  and  England  for  so  many  years  were  caused  by  a  traditional 
aversion,  which  was  aggravated  by  certain  events  of  our  Civil  War 
and  by  many  minor  irritating  controversies,  the  worst  feature  of 
which  is  the  fact  that  few  of  them  have  ever  been  settled.  But 
through  all  this  it  has  been  felt  by  the  people  of  both  countries 
that  a  tie  binds  them  together,  however  much  they  may  irritate 
each  other  by  straining  it. 

Aversion,  and  even  specific  controversies,  between  peoples  so 
related  are  often  composed  by  the  force  of  events  with  which  their 
connection  seems  merely  ideal  and  sympathetic.  Such  pacifying 
forces  are  so  subtle  and  impalpable  that  they  can  often  be  perceived 
long  before  they  can  be  described.  The  difficulty  of  indication 
exists  in  the  present  instance,  but,  notwithstanding,  it  is  very  plain 
that  a  change  of  sentiment,  of  expression,  and  of  general  contour 
of  relations  between  the  two  nations  has  taken  place. 

The  conviction,  heretofore  only  imperfectly  felt  and  only  par¬ 
tially,  infrequently  and  fitfully  acknowledged,  is  now  clearly  oper¬ 
ative,  and  is  openly  and  spontaneously  expressed,  that  the  125,000,* 
000  people  who  speak  the  English  language,  who  have  established 
representative  governments  and  mainta'ned  personal  liberty  in  every 
portion  of  the  world,  whose  conceptions  of  faith,  literature,  morals, 
education,  popular  government  and  individual  freedom  are  cognate 
at  all  times  and  everywhere,  whose  civilization,  though  developed, 
is  not  decadent  but  is  still  progressive,  who  have  heretofore  taken 
no  step  backward  in  an  expansion  of  influence  and  empire  without 
comparison  in  history,  are  amicably  approaching  each  other  under 
the  pressure  of  a  great  human  evolution. 

I  trust  that  these  observations  will  not  be  thought  irrelevant 
to  this  ceremony.  It  has  seemed  to  me  most  proper  that  the 
thoughts  of  our  people  should  be  directed  to  these  momentous  top¬ 
ics  upon  an  occasion,  political  but  not  partisan,  which  has  assem¬ 
bled  this  multitude  of  the  thoughtful  men  and  women  of  our  be¬ 
loved  commonwealth. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


27 


This  day  will  soon  end.  The  invocations,  the  choral  rejoicings 
of  triumphant  and  patriotic  music  sent  out  by  instrument  and  voice, 
the  words  of  oratory  vainly  essaying  to  be  adequate  to  its  theme, 
the  gleaming  banners  of  our  country,  the  emblems  of  our  industry, 
the  trophies  of  our  conquest  of  innumerable  felicities  here  exhib¬ 
ited,  the  militant  youth  of  Minnesota  marshaled  for  war — all  that 
constitutes  this  pageant  will  soon  cease  to  be  seen  or  heard. 

Not  for  hundreds  of  years  will  this  ceremony  be  again  per¬ 
formed.  But  of  one  indubitable  and  changeless  fact  we  can  feel 
assured,  and  it  is  that  when,  in  a  distant  age,  a  corner  stone  shall  be 
laid  for  another  and  a  greater  capitol  of  Minnesota,  they  who  place 
it,  in  contemplating  the  reverend  structure  here  begun,  will  glory 
in  and  emulate  the  virtues  of  their  fathers. 

For  as  a  great  master  of  English,  a  seer  in  economics  and  an  au¬ 
thority  in  art,  has  truly  said  of  such  structures  raised  by  states: 

“Men  cannot  benefit  those  that  are  with  them  as  they  can  benefit 
those  who  come  after  them,  and  of  all  the  pulpits  from  which  human 
voice  is  ever  sent  forth  there  is  none  from  which  it  reaches  so  far 
as  from  the  grave. 

“Nor  is  there,  indeed,  any  present  loss,  in  such  respect  for  futur¬ 
ity.  Every  human  action  gains  in  honor,  in  grace,  in  all  true  mag¬ 
nificence,  by  its  regard  to  things  that  are  to  come.  It  is  the  far 
sight,  the  quick  and  confident  patience,  that,  above  all  other  attrib¬ 
utes,  separate  man  from  man,  and  near  him  to  his  Maker;  and 
there  is  no  action  nor  art  whose  majesty  we  may  not  measure  by 
this  test.  Therefore,  when  we  build,  let  us  think  that  we  build  for¬ 
ever.  Let  it  not  be  for  present  delight,  nor  for  present  use  alone; 
let  it  be  such  work  as  our  descendants  will  thank  us  for,  and  let  us 
think,  as  we  lay  stone  on  stone,  that  a  time  is  to  come  when  those 
stones  will  be  held  sacred  because  our  hands  have  touched  them,  and 
that  men  will  say  as  they  look  upon  the  labor  and  wrought  sub¬ 
stance  of  them.  ‘See!  this  our  fathers  did  for  us.’ 

“For,  indeed  the  greatest  glory  of  a  building  is  not  in  its  stones, 
or  in  its  gold.  Its  glory  is  in  its  age,  and  in  that  deep  sense  of  voice¬ 
ful  ness,  of  stern  watching,  of  mysterious  sympathy,  nay,  even  of  ap¬ 
proval  or  condemnation,  which  we  feel  in  walls  that  have  long  been 
washed  by  the  passing  waves  of  humanity.  It  is  in  their  lasting 
witness  against  men,  in  their  quiet  contrast  with  the  transitional 
character  of  all  things,  in  the  strength  which,  through  the  lapse  of 
seasons  and  times,  and  the  decline  and  birth  of  dynasties,  and  the 
changing  of  the  fact  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  limits  of  the  sea,  main¬ 
tains  its  sculptured  shapeliness  for  a  time  insuperable,  connects  for¬ 
gotten  and  following  ages  with  each  other,  and  half  constitutes  the 
identity  as  it  concentrates  the  sympathy  of  nations. 


28 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


“It  is  in  that  golden  stain  of  time  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  real 
light,  and  color,  and  preciousness  of  architecture;  and  it  is  not  until 
a  building  has  assumed  this  character,  till  it  has  been  entrusted 
with  the  fame,  and  hallowed  by  the  deeds  of  men,  till  its  walls  have 
been  witnesses  of  suffering,  and  its  pillars  rise  out  of  the  shadows 
of  death,  that  its  existence,  more  lasting  as  it  is  than  that  of  the 
natural  objects  of  the  world  around  it,  can  be  gifted  with  even  so 
much  as  these  possess  of  language  and  of  life.” 

Overture:  “William  Tell.” — Rossini. 

PRESENTATION  OF  TROWEL. 

The  proceedings  were,  at  this  point,  interrupted  by  Hon. 
Chas.  E.  Flandrau  of  St.  Paul,  who,  on  behalf  of  the  citizens  of 
the  state,  presented  to  Hon.  Alexander  Ramsey,  the  first  terri¬ 
torial  governor  of  Minnesota  (in  1849),  a  silver  trowel  with 
which  to  lay  the  corner  stone. 

Judge  Flandrau  said: 

Gov.  Alexander  Ramsey:  The  State  of  Minnesota,  in  selecting 
you  to  lay  the  corner  stone  of  its  new  capitol,  recognizes  in  you  a 
builder  of  great  skill  and  experience.  In  its  incipient  territorial 
stage  you  evolved  a  capitol  from  tamarack  poles.  In  its  incipient 
second  stage  of  territorial  infancy  you  constructed  one  of  brick  and 
mortar;  and  now,  when  it  has  attained  the  highest  grandeur  of 
statehood,  if  again  calls  upon  you  to  lay  the  foundation  of  its  splen¬ 
did  marble  home,  the  purity,  durability  and  beauty  of  which  so  truly 
typify  its  position  in  the  glorious  Union  of  American  states. 

But,  well  skilled  as  you  are  in  this  work,  you  cannot  perform  it 
safely  and  surely  without  suitable  tools.  The  state,  knowing  this, 
has  prepared  a  masons’  trowel  of  pure  silver  to  aid  you  in  vour  work, 
and  has  delegated  me  to  present  it  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  great 
commonwealth.  I  am  instructed  to  impress  upon  you  the  necessity 
of  extraordinary  care  in  its  use,  that  no  fault  nor  flaw  may  find  its 
way  into  the  future  abode  of  our  sovereign  state,  as  Pone  has  over 
in  the  past  sullied  its  dignity  or  honor. 

The  strength  of  man  is  in  his  brain  and  bone; 

That  of  the  temple  in  its  corner  stone. 

The  trowel  which  I  now  present  to  you  is  of  silver,  adorned  with 
a  garland  of  the  moccasin  flower  of  the  state;  its  handle  is  from  the 


GOVERNOR  RAMSEY  ABOUT  TO  LAY  THE  CORNER  STONE,  JULY  27th,  1898. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


29 


tamarack  poles  of  which  the  old  Central  House,  used  as  our  first 
capitol  in  1849,  was  constructed.  With  such  a  tool  in  the  hands  of 
such  a  workman,  success  is  assured. 

Governor  Ramsey,  in  acknowledging  the  gift,  said: 

My  Dear  Judge  Flandrau :  I  feel  much  flattered  at  having  been 
selected  by  the  capitol  commissioners  for  the  honorable  duty  of  lay¬ 
ing  the  corner  stone  of  this  the  third  capitol  building  of  the  State  of 
Minnesota,  and  very  grateful  to  my  fellow  citizens  for  the  beautiful 
and  artistic  gift  which  you  now  present  me  on  their  behalf.  It  is 
of  a  piece  with  the  kindness  and  consideration  they  have  ever  shown 
me  during  this  half  century  of  my  association  with  them. 

It  has  furthermore  relieved  me  of  serious  embarrassment,  for, 
being  new  to  such  functions,  I  had  neglected  to  provide  myself  with 
the  necessary  implements,  and  have  been  somewhat  perplexed  as  to 
how  I  should  perform  them. 

I  desire  to  add  my  word  of  appreciation  and  thanks  to  the  board 
of  capitol  commissioners  for  the  courage,  energy  and  tact  they  have 
shown  in  their  determination  to  carry  this  work,  so  much  needed 
and  so  long  delayed,  to  a  speedy  completion. 

May,  through  the  grace  of  God,  the  coming  fifty  years  witness  an 
even  greater  growth  and  development  of  this  great  state  of  ours 
than  those  which  are  now  nearing  a  close. 

Thanking  you,  my  dear  judge,  for  the  kind  and  gracious  manner 
in  which  you  have  performed  your  mission,  I  will  now  proceed  to 
the  performance  of  the  duty  which  has  been  assigned  to  me. 

Governor  Clough  then  announced,  as  follows: 

We  will  now  proceed  to  place  the  corner  stone  of  the  new  cap¬ 
itol  upon  the  foundation  prepared  for  it.  In  this  box  made  of  copper 
we  have  placed  various  articles  and  memorials  indicative  of  our 
progress  in  art,  literature  and  agriculture,  a  list  of  which  will  be 
read  by  Nathaniel  P.  Langford. 

Mr.  Langford,  chairman  of  the  committee  on  archives,  read 
the  list  of  the  articles  in  the  corner  stone. 


Note.— The  trowel  was  made  by  a  famous  silversmith.  It  is  adorned,  as 
Judge  Flandrau  mentioned,  with  a  border  of  moccasin  flowers,  the  “official” 
flowers  of  Minnesota.  Upon  the  blade  of  the  tool  is  inscribed,  “Presented  to 
Alexander  Ramsey,  the  first  governor  of  the  Territory  and  State  of  Minne¬ 
sota,  by  his  fellow  citizens,  as  a  testimonial  of  esteeni  and  respect.  With  this 
trowel  was  laid  the  corner  stone  of  the  new  state  capitol  at  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
July  27,  1808.” 


30 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone . 


In  the  sealed  and  soldered  box  that  lies  in  the  corner  stone 
the  following  articles  were  placed,  to  lie  for  unknown  hun¬ 
dreds  of  years: 

Holy  Bible. 

Statutes  of  the  State  of  Minnesota,  Yols.  1  and  2. 

Last  published  annual  report  of  the  secretary  of  state  of  Minnesota. 

Last  published  annual  report  of  the  Minnesota  state  auditor. 

Last  published  annual  report  of  the  Minnesota  state  treasurer. 

Legislative  manuals  of  Minnesota  for  the  years  1893,  1895  and  1897. 

History  of  Minnesota  Volunteers  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  Yols.  1 
and  2. 

Volumes  4  and  S  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections, 

Minnesota  Historical  Society  publication,  “How  Minnesota  Became  a 
State.” 

Congressional  directory  of  the  Fifty-fifth  congress  of  the  United  States. 

History  of  the  new  capitol  legislation. 

The  original  draft  of  the  bill  drawn  and  introduced  in  the  legislature  by 
Hon.  William  B.  Dean  of  St.  Paul,  for  the  erection  of  a  new  capitol. 

Neill’s  History  of  Minnesota. 

History  of  the  Sioux  War  of  1862-63,  by  Isaac  Y.  D.  Heard. 

Minnesota  Year  Book  for  the  years  1852  and  1853. 

Photographs  of  the  new  capitol. 

Photographs  and  engravings  of  Minnesota  cities  and  villages. 

Minneapolis  through  a  camera. 

Copies  of  the  last  issued  daily  newspapers  of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis. 

Badge  of  the  Daughters  of  Veterans,  Tent  No.  1,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Report  of  the  GrandArmy  of  the  Republic  for  Minnesota. 

American  flag  and  roster  of  St.  Paul  Camp  No.  1,  Sons  of  Veterans,  U.S.A. 

One  $20  gold  coin,  one  $10  gold  coin,  and  one  $5  gold  coin,  and  one  each 
of  all  the  silver,  nickel  and  copper  coins  of  the  United  States  of  this  date. 

Portrait  of  Alexander  Ramsey,  first  governor  of  the  Territory  of  Min¬ 
nesota. 

Portrait  of  Henry  Hastings  Sibley,  first  governor  of  the  State  of  Min¬ 
nesota. 

A  copy  of  the  introductory  address  by  Hon.  Charles  H.  Graves. 

A  copy  of  the  oration  delivered  to-day  by  Hon.  Cushman  K.  Davis. 

Copper  plates  of  the  seal  of  the  Territory  and  the  State  of  Minnesota. 

Copper  plate  etchings  of  south  front  elevation  and  principal  floor  plans 
of  the  capitol. 

A  copper  plate  on  which  are  engraved  the  names  of  the  capitol  commis¬ 
sioners,  secretary,  architect  and  assistants. 

A  copper  plate  on  which  is  engraved  an  epitome  of  memorable  events  in 
the  history  of  the  organization  of  the  Territory  and  State  of  Minnesota. 

City  Directory  for  the  year  1898  of  St.  Paul,  capital  of  Minnesota. 

Northwestern  Gazetteer  and  Business  Directory. 

A  list,  engrossed  on  parchment,  of  the  contents  of  the  corner  stone. 

A  copy  of  the  program  and  ceremonies  of  laying  the  corner  stone. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


31 


One  of  the  copper  plates  that  lie  in  the  stone  bears  the  fol¬ 
lowing  inscription: 

Epitome  of  Memorable  Events 

in  the  History  of  the  Acquisition  and  Organization  of  the  Territory  and 

State  of  Minnesota. 

1784.  March  1— Cession  by  the  State  of  Virginia  to  the  United  States  of 
that  portion  of  Minnesota  lying  east  of  the  Mississippi  river. 

1803.  April  30— Treaty  concluded  with  France  for  the  cession  of  Louisi¬ 
ana  to  the  United  States,  embracing  that  portion  of  Minnesota  lying  west 
of  the  Mississippi  river. 

1805.  Sept.  23— Conferences  with  different  bands  of  Indians. 

1837.  Feb.  18— Convention  with  Wahpaakootah  and  other  Sioux  Indians. 

1838.  June  15 — Treaty  with  Chippeways,  by  Henry  Dodge,  proclaimed. 

1838.  June  15 — Treaty  with  Sioux,  by  J.  It.  Poinsett,  proclaimed. 

1838.  The  first  pre-emption  claim  to  land  at  St.  Anthony  Falls  made  by 
Franklin  Steele. 

1849.  March  3— The  United  States  congress  passed  the  organic  act  creat¬ 
ing  the  Territory  of  Minnesota. 

1849.  June  1— The  governor,  Alexander  Ramsey,  by  proclamation,  de¬ 
clared  the  Territory  duly  organized.  Population,  4,940. 

1853.  Feb.  24— The  treaty  of  Traverse  des  Sioux,  made  by  Alexander 
Ramsey  and  Luke  Lea,  with  the  Sioux  Indians,  on  July  23,  1851,  and  the 
treaty  of  Mendota,  made  by  Alexander  Ramsey  and  Luke  Lea,  with  the 
Sioux  Indians,  on  Aug.  5,  1851,  were  proclaimed  by  the  president. 

1857.  Feb.  26 — The  act  authorizing  the  territory  to  form  a  state  gov¬ 
ernment  passed  by  congress. 

1857.  Oct.  13 — A  state  constitution  was  adopted. 

1858.  May  11 — Congress  passed  the  act  admitting  Minnesota  into  the 
Union,  Henry  Hastings  Sibley  being  the  first  state  governor.  Population, 
150,037. 

1862.  July  2— The  first  railroad  in  Minnesota  was  operated,  the  train 
running  from  St.  Paul  to  St.  Anthony. 

1861  to  1865— Minnesota  furnished  more  than  25,000  men  for  the  War  of 
the  Rebellion. 

1890.  June  1— Population,  United  States  census,  1,301,826. 

1895.  June  1— Population,  state  census,  1,574,619. 


32 


Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone. 


On  the  other  copper  plate  deposited  in  the  box  within  the 
corner  stone  the  following  record  is  inscribed: 


To  those  who  come  after  us  this  record  is  given: 


This  Corner  Stone  of  a  New  Capitol  for  the 
Accommodation  of  the  Executive,  Legisla¬ 
tive  and  Judicial  Departments  of  the 
State  of  Minnesota  was  Laid  in  the 
City  of  Saint  Paul  on  the  27th 
day  of  July,  in  the  Year  of  Our 


Lord  One  Thousand  Eight 
Hundred  and  Ninety- 
eight,  by 

Alexander  Ramsey, 


First  Governor  of  the  Territory  and  Second 
Governor  of  the  State  of  Minnesota. 


Board  of  State  Capitol  Commissioners. 

Governor  David  M.  Clough, 
(Ex-officio)  President. 

Channing  Seabury  of  Saint  Paul, 

Vice  President  and  Chairman. 
Eben  E.  Corliss  of  Fergus  Falls. 

John  De  Laittre  of  Minneapolis. 
George  A.  Du  Toit  of  Chaska. 
Charles  H.  Graves  of  Duluth. 

Henry  W.  Lamberton  of  AVinona. 
Edgar  Wreaver  of  Mankato. 

Frank  E.  Hanson  of  Saint  Paul,  Secretary. 


Architect  and  Superintendent  of  Building: 


Cass  Gilbert. 


Draughtsmen,  Engineers  and  Assistants: 


F.  A.  Sherrill, 
Alfred  Smith, 

A.  J.  Gage, 
Frederick  C.  Gibbs, 


Thomas  Gannett  Holyoke, 
John  Rachac,  Jr., 

George  H.  Carsley, 
Eugene  Ward, 


Charles  F.  F.  Abbott,  Superintendent. 


Superintendent  for  the  State: 
John  Boland. 


New  Capitol  of  Minnesota. 


33 


Governor  Clough  then  said : 

I  will  request  the  commissioners  to  place  this  box  in  the  cavity 
prepared  in  the  corner  stone  for  its  reception. 

The  corner  stone  was  raised,  mortar  was  spread  upon  the 
stone  beneath,  and  the  copper  box  was  placed  upon  the  mortar 
where  it  would  be  exactly  covered  within  the  cavity  in  the 
lower  side  of  the  corner  stone. 

Governor  Clough  proceeded: 

This  massive  corner  stone  is  a  production  of  our  own  state,  de¬ 
signed  by  our  architect,  and  shaped  by  the  skill  of  our  workmen.  It 
gives  me  great  pleasure  to  call  upon  our  honored  fellow  citizen,  Alex¬ 
ander  Ramsey,  the  first  territorial  governor  of  Minnesota,  a  man 
who  has  resided  among  us  and  watched  with  pride  the  won¬ 
derful  growth  of  this  first  territory  and  then  state,  since  1849,  to  lay 
this  corner  stone. 

Governor  Ramsey  then  spread  the  mortar  with  the  silver 
trowel.  The  stone  was  slowly  lowered.  As  the  stone  descend¬ 
ed  the  band  played  “America,”  many  thousands  of  voices  sing¬ 
ing  the  anthem. 

The  stone  being  now  in  place,  Governor  Clough  announced : 

I  proclaim  that  the  corner  stone  of  the  new  eapitol  of  the  State 
of  Minnesota  has  this  day  been  well  and  properly  set  in  its  perma¬ 
nent  resting  place.  May  its  fidelity  to  the  trust  imposed  upon  it 
ever  be  a  silent  monitor  to  the  rulers  of  the  people  for  whom  this 
house  is  being  erected. 

Bishop  M.  N.  Gilbert  then  pronounced  the  following 

BENEDICTION. 

Unto  God’s  gracious  mercy  and  protection  we  commit  ourselves 
and  all  the  citizens  of  this  commonwealth,  the  governor  and  all 
others  in  authority,  the  laborers  upon  these  walls  and  their  families, 
those  who  shall  in  the  days  to  come  meet  and  counsel  in  this  edifice, 
our  sailors  and  soldiers  on  sea  and  land,  and  all  whom  we  would  re¬ 
member,  both  near  and  far.  The  Lord  bless  them  and  keep  them; 
the  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  them  and  give  them  peace, 
both  now  ond  evermore.  Amen. 


